[Sunlight] "Each pillar a destroyer of the other"

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The four elements are four strong pillars
that support the roof of this present world.
Each pillar is a destroyer of the other:
the pillar known as water destroys the flames of fire.
The edifice of creation is based upon opposites,
and so we are always at war.
My states of mind and body are mutually opposed:
each one is opposite in its effect.
Since I am incessantly struggling with myself,
how should I act in harmony with someone else?
You cannot escape unless God saves you from this war
and brings you into the unicolored world of peace.
That world is forever flourishing,
because it's not composed of opposites.

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Châr `onsor châr ostun-e qavist
keh bedishân saqf-e donyâ mostavist
Har sotuni eshkanandeh-ye ân degar
oston-e âb eshkanandeh-ye ân sharar
Pas benâ-ye khalq bar azdâd bud
lâ jaram mâ jangiyim az zarr o sud
Hast ahvâlam khelâf-e hamdegar
har yeki bâ ham mokhâlef dar asar
Chonkeh har dam râh khvod-râ mi zanam
bâ degar kas sâzgâri chon konam
Yâ magar zin jang Haqqet vâ kharad
dar jahân-e solh-e yek ranget barad
Ân jahân joz bâqi o âbâd nist
zânkeh ân tarkib az azdâd nist

-- Mathnawi VI: 48-52; 55-56
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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[Sunlight] "Each pillar a destroyer of the other"